Soulmate Spotted
by doctoring
Summary: Hermione helps Harry work on a potion that's supposed to help them find the horcruxes. However, she ends up finding out the truth about the potion, and about her feelings towards two other boys: Ron and Draco. / Sequel to "An Extra Dose of Compassion" / Written for Writer's Month. Trope Prompt: soulmates


"Hermione!" Harry hissed not quite quietly enough. "Look at this!"

Hermione leaned over and had instantly rolled her eyes at Harry's used potion book. She doesn't know who this "Half-Blood Prince" is but she does know that you shouldn't just trust anyone who scribbles notes into their textbook. She's seen Ron's own incorrect notes in the margins of his books.

"Harry, I don't think we should-"

"What? Use whatever resource is available to find the horcruxes?"

Hermione snatched the book from Harry. She reads the note below the felix felicis instructions. Apparently, with one extra ingredient and drastic modification to the timing of the potion, one can use this new, unnamed potion to…

"What does it mean by 'allow one a glimpse of the person most needed;' who in the world is most needed?"

Harry leans in closer and whisper, "Perhaps it is the one most needed to the drinker now… the one who will lead us to the next horcrux!"

Harry takes the book back, closing it, and starts detailing how he's already planned out when to start the potion and obtain the ingredients. "So, if we start it this weekend, we can get it done in plenty of time before the new moon!"

"The new moon?"

"Yes, Hermione, aren't you listening? This apparently doesn't work well unless you complete it between the time the snow melts and the first new moon after that. Anyways…"

Hermione was having trouble listening to Harry. Before he took the book back, she noticed a line about the potion needing more practice.

_More practice? So is it still experimental? It's a potion by this mysterious Half-Blood Prince, that's still in testing, and has the vague description of glimpsing the person most needed. I know we're desperate to find all the horcruxes, but are we this desperate?_

. . . . . . .

Hermione received her answer that weekend as she was separating ingredients into three small cauldrons in the back of a dusty closet in the astronomy tower. They have just enough for three potions and decided to go ahead and make three batches. Best case scenario, they can use it to find three of the remaining five horcruxes. But most likely, they'll have two chances for a do-over if they mess up any of the steps over the 20-day process.

. . . . . . .

A week later, Hermione went to check on their potions, to find only two.

She quickly leaves the tower and runs to find Harry on the way to their next class. She catches up to him and immediately murmurs, "There's only two!"

"What?"

"There's only two potions left! I think someone might have-"

Harry waves a hand to stop her. "Calm down… I may have stirred one of them too quickly yesterday…"

"So, you ruined it?" Hermione complains at a normal volume.

Harry stops walking. "Cut me some slack! I didn't know it would completely change it if you stir it too quickly! Besides, how am I supposed to control my stirring speed that specifically?"

"How? By paying attention! It's not that hard if you pay attention!"

"Well, excuse me for-"

"Bloody Gryffindors, always so loud! Do you think everyone wants to hear your conversations all the time?"

Hermione and Harry look back at Draco. As he passed by, he pauses by Hermione and says, "So what if the golden boy screwed up the potions homework. Not everyone can be academically gifted like you, Granger."

Harry's eyes went wide, and Hermione whispered, "You forgot the homework, didn't you?"

"Yeah, of course… but that's not… did he… did he just compliment you?"

Hermione tried to replay Draco's comment in her head. She attempted to convince herself he didn't mean it like that, maybe didn't even say it, but her flushed cheeks said otherwise.

. . . . . . .

Over the next week, Hermione checked on the potions regularly. Harry thought she was just upset about ruining one of the potions, but she really just wanted to be alone with her thoughts and feelings. She often found herself sitting in that dusty closet just thinking, with nothing to do with the potions for that day.

She was struggling with her feelings for Ron, trying to convince herself that her jealously over Lavender was just annoyance at their overly public relationship.

_One should NOT be doing affectionate acts in public every ten minutes! It's just unnecessary, unprofessional, and un-un-un… I don't know, but it makes me want to punch Lavender in the face whenever I see her. _

. . . . . . .

"Hermione! It's Ron!"

Hermione drops the cauldron, spilling most of the contents onto the floor, staining it a light pink. Before the fret of the wasted potion can hit her, she finally registers Harry's words.

"Ron!?"

Harry gestures for her to follow, and they rush to the infirmary. As she rushes, she goes back and forth between worrying about what happened to Ron and mentally berating herself at being so clumsy. Harry gave her a three-sentence overview of the incident and promised to tell her more when they're alone. She figured it had something to do with discovering information about the horcruxes.

Harry and Hermione sit with Ron for a while until Madam Pomfrey ushers them all out to allow him to rest.

As they left, Harry said, "I"ll go check on the last potion and clean up the mess, so don't worry about that. You just go get yourself cleaned up."

She looks down, confused, only to see pink splatters all over her shirt and jeans. She sighs heavily, and heads to the room, thankful that (for now) there's no signs of it ruining her clothes or harming her skin.

About three stairs away, she sees Draco approaching, and feels herself get tense.

_I am _NOT_ in the mood for his nonsense today._

As Draco passes, she thought she would be left alone. But the stairs suddenly turn, and she finds herself to his left again. He pauses and gives her a disgusted look. "At least learn to clean yourself up, Granger."

_I really don't need this right-_

Before she could finish her though, Draco takes out his wand and flicks it towards her. She flinches for a second and reaches for her wand, but then sees pink specks trailing from her clothes, into the air between them, before they disappear. She looks down, her clothes appearing brand new.

"That's better."

At the sound of his voice, she snaps her head back towards Draco, who's already walking away.

. . . . . . .

During Ron's week in the hospital, Hermione softens her demeanor, her concern for her friend surpassing her distastes towards public display of affection. She felt her heart lunge when Ron said her name upon waking in the hospital. However, it was more shock that it happened at all than happiness for shared feelings.

_Was this even shared feelings? Am I still trying to suppress a crush, or had it faded this past year? _

. . . . . . .

That weekend, there was a quidditch match, which Harry was playing in, but Ron was just spectating, not yet having the all-clear to participate in sports again.

Meanwhile, Hermione sneaks back into the tower to finish the last step on the potion.

She was supposed to slowly simmer the potion for half an hour and then cut it off as soon as it turns from pink to grey. She had convinced Harry to let her hold his potions book, so she can look up other things that may aid in their journey for the horcruxes.

As she was reading the potions book, and noticed something Harry didn't see, or didn't mention. Written small and sideways in the margin near the notes about the potion currently simmering was "CON'T65"

_Wait… continue… page 65… possibly?_

She turns to the page, and there's notes written at the top, as if finishing a thought, before another note for another page… she goes back and forth between the three pages, piecing it together…

_Idiot! How did Harry not notice the extra note?_

_Apparently this potion was supposed to allow you a glimpse of your _soulmate_ at that very moment, but the writer raises the question on whether or not one can still NOT end up with their soulmate, even after knowing who it is… thus the alteration to include more felix felicis ingredients… _

_How is this going to help us find the horcruxes!?_

Hermione scoffs out loud.

_Soulmates? _SOULMATES_? Don't be ridiculous, there's no such things as- _

She hears the roar of the crowd and looks out at the quidditch match. She grabs a pair of binoculars and immediately spots Ron, which isn't hard. He's the only Gryffindor dressed in quidditch gear but is sitting in the stands. Madam Pomfrey allowed him to _attend _the game, but not on the bench, and sure as hell not as a player

Hermione smiles to herself seeing Ron dressed to play, but happily cheering in the stands over the recent win.

_Too bad this potion is probably a fake. Like there's such a thing as a soulmate… but it would be nice, to see someone, and just know they're the one for you, instead of questioning every daft decision they make. That kind of certainty would be-_

Hermione hears loud popping sounds, and looks to the potion, it's gone from simmering to boiling, a swirl of pink, grey, and a yellow color not mentioned at all in the book.

She hastily removes the tiny cauldron from the heat source, but soon finds herself covered in muck as the potion explodes. She stands there in shock, feeling the potion drip down her face and body, when she suddenly tastes something overly sour, almost akin to lemons, and her vision is blurred.

She sees an image flash before her, just a few times, before her vision is restored. The whole process was so quick, she didn't have time to panic about permanent sight loss. She quickly wipes her face, before realizing what had happened.

_The potion might not have gone bad at all… it might have actually worked._

She quickly sends a mental apology to her parents for the foolish thing she's about to do and licks a long stripe up her forearm.

Her face contorts with the sour taste, but besides a split second of blurred vision, there's nothing. She tries again, to consume more, but still the same affect. She ultimately decides that she might have ruined the potion after, and only lucked out with that first sip.

Harry rushes into the tower not long after. Frowning, he asks, "What happened?"

"It… it exploded on me… guess it got too hot."

"We'll have to make another!"

"We don't have any more ingredients or time… besides, look…" She carefully wipes her hands off on the side of her shirt and then points out the notes about the soulmate. "Unless your _soulmate_ was going to lead us to the next horcrux, this would have been useless."

"Right…" Harry sat down and cradled his head in his hands. Then he looks up at Hermione and gives her a teasing grin. "Too bad it didn't work, either way… would have been interesting to see who your soulmate was."

Hermione scoffed, and wiped ineffectively at the potion on her shirt, wishing she knew what spell Draco had used the other day to clean her clothes.

"Seriously! What if it was someone we knew… WHAT IF IT WAS RON! CAN YOU IMA-"

"Oh whatever, you just wanted to know if your soulmate was Ginny." Herminone continued on, ignoring his protests. "In fact, you probably _knew_ what this potion was for, and just wanted to try it to see if you really were meant to be with _your best friend's little sister!_"

Hermione continued to tease Harry about this, who struggled to defend himself.

It was a good deflect for her. She could never tell him that the potion worked, albeit for only a second. Especially not when she didn't see a single flash of red. No vibrant red hair, or flushed, freckled cheeks, or the crimson Gryffindor quidditch uniform. None of the colors she would have expected up until a week ago.

She could never tell Harry that his guess was wrong. Because then she would have to explain how she can only remember a few things that didn't fit Ron.

Like the fitted grey sweater.

And the green necktie.

And especially the blonde-white hair.

-the end-

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_A/N: Check .com if you want to know more about upcoming fics, like the rest of this series. :)_


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